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Game Development vocabulary · Production, QA & Playtesting

Beta

Meaning in game development, with examples

/ˈbeɪtə/nounCore term

In game development, beta means: The stage after alpha when the game's content is complete and the team focuses on fixing bugs and polishing; also a public or closed test of that version.

In Turkish: beta, beta sürümü

How it is used

Usually no new features are added after beta. Open betas let anyone play, test the servers and build interest before launch. American English says BAY-ta; British English often says BEE-ta.

Example sentences

  1. We're in beta now, so no more new features, only bug fixes.

  2. The open beta crashed our login servers on the first night.

Common collocations

  • open beta
  • closed beta
  • beta test
  • beta build
  • beta key
  • alphaThe stage of development when all main features are in the game and it can be played from start to finish, but it still has many bugs, placeholders and no polish.
  • go goldWhen a game goes gold, its final release version is finished and approved, ready to be manufactured on discs or distributed to stores.
  • early accessA way of selling an unfinished game so players can buy and play it while it is still in development and give feedback before the full release.
  • QAShort for quality assurance: testing a game to find, document and check bugs before and after release, and also the team that does this work.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Production, QA & Playtesting

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